Page 6 - We'll Sing Coverage Book

Colin’s Column

9 October 2020
We’ll Sing: Lyrics by Poet Laureate Simon

Armitage with music by composers

Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Daniel Kidane.

Simon Armitage

Huddersfield Choral Society commissions two new works in response to COVID-19
inspired by its members

Online World Premiere on 28 November 2020, 7.30pm

In March 2020, Huddersfield Choral Society was silenced – along with all music-making
around the world – due to the coronavirus pandemic and just two weeks into lockdown two of its
members tragically died from COVID-19.

Huddersfield Choral Society wanted to create something new that would remember departed
friends but also provide hope for choral singers throughout the UK. Poet Laureate, Simon
Armitage, a proud son of Huddersfield, asked each member of the Choral Society to send him
one word which summed up their experience of lockdown. From this list of words Armitage has
created two sets of lyrics – We’ll Sing and The Song Thrush and the Mountain Ash. Huddersfield
Choral Society commissioned two acclaimed composers – Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Daniel
Kidane – to set the lyrics to music. Both composers spent time with Armitage to explore the best
way of interpreting his words and the result is moving and beguiling.